An object can be held in a chamber, away from the walls of the chamber, by acoustic energy, electrostatic fields, and the like. It is known that such a levitated object can be made to rotate by applying acoustic energy resonant to the chamber at two locations spaced 90.degree. about the chamber, and with the acoustic energy at the two locations being of the same frequency but 90.degree. out of phase. In systems where one or more transducers have been used to levitate an object in three dimensions within a chamber, the addition of a pair of transducers to also rotate the object, would add to the number of transducers and require adjusting the frequency of all transducers as conditions change, such as a change in the temperature of gas in the chamber. A system which minimized the number of transducers required to simultaneously levitate an object and control its rotation would be of considerable value.
In prior art techniques for rotating an object, it has been easy to rapidly rotate an object, but more difficult to slowly rotate it or control its position without continuous rotation of the object. A method and apparatus which enabled controlled slow rotation of an object as well as angular positioning of the object, would also be of considerable value.